A Closer Look At Everyware's Levitate At The Creators Project: Seoul 2012

Each year, The Creators Project events offer up a brand new collection of mind-blowing works of art. With every edition, we present the absolute best of the creations we’ve covered, and the balance of works is never quite the same twice. This year in Seoul, we brought together five dynamic and enthralling large-scale works, including one by of Korean Creators, Everyware.

Popular for their playful interplay between new media art and interactive experience, the creative computing group presented a sleek and distinctively refined installation as part of this year’s festivities. Nestled in the tranquil atmosphere of the Design Gallery along with Yang Yongliang’s ethereal flowing cityscape The Day of Perpetual Night, Everyware’s Levitate bewildered participants with an illusion that defies gravity. Everyware cheekily describes this as “a new media-esque joke about ‘gravity’ being quite possibly the final obstacle of humanity.”

Forty-nine black orbs effortlessly hover in translucent pipes. Suspended in a horizontal line, the balls wait for the trigger of a passerby’s motion, and at the moment they detect someone’s presence, the attached iPad camera recognizes movement resulting in the vertical ascendance of the balls directly in front of the viewer. If the viewer moves closer, the balls soar higher. If the viewer moves from one side to the other, the balls follow in a wave-like motion. It almost seems like the installation vicariously evokes the curiosity and excitement of the viewer through the anthropomorphic behavior of the balls. Restless and bored, they stay idle but as soon as someones around, they’re up and at it.